The
support was strong for Coach Tom Flatter at Mississinawa Valley
Friday as the
Patriots mourned the passing of Connie Flatter. The Pats
rolled to a huge victory over the
Blackhawks in the season finale for
both teams in Cross County Conference play.
CNO Photo by Dale Barger,
tvpatriots.com

Union City – The Tri-Village Basketball Team, Coaches, Cheerleaders and
Community took the hardwood tonight with a heavy heart with the passing
of Coach Tom Flatter’s wife Connie. The Cheerleaders showed their
support wearing t-shirts that read “For Coach Tom and Connie, while the
boys wore them as their warm-up jerseys.

Connie loved basketball, why not? Her three boys all played and are
embedded in the illustrious history of Tri-Village Basketball. In fact
all three of her boys played on the same team at one time in 1998-99.
Derek is a 1999 graduate and was a junior varsity coach a number years.
Twins Aaron & Jeremy were both 2000 graduates and played on a
district final team that went 21-3.

Tom & Connie’s contribution and love for basketball at Tri-Village
has been unwavering and Connie will be deeply missed. In a show of
respect Mississinawa Valley observed a moment of silence before the
start of the game.

For Mississinawa it was a time to celebrate senior night and nothing
would be better for seniors Steve Armstrong, Joey Brooks, Dustyn
Whitesel and Cody Evans than to pull off an upset on Tri-Village.

It looked bleak in the early going as Tri-Village jumped out to a 15-4
lead… but the Blackhawks stormed back behind Cody Evans and Carson
Stump to close to 20-15 at the end of the first quarter. In the end,
T-V secured its 11th Cross County Conference win on the year 72-35. The
win also gives the Patriots 17 wins overall to just 3 losses.

Tri-Village then opened up a 33-19 advantage at the 4:00 minute mark,
looking to break the game wide open…but the scrappy Hawks wouldn’t
fold, getting scoring from Joey Brooks, Brandon Byers and Dane
Blumenstock to once again close the gap at the half trailing just
35-27.

The Patriots used a balanced attack in the first half, Kyle Pipenger
led with 11 points. Evan Barger and Tyler Cook each had eight, and Matt
Werner five along with Shade Brubaker dropping a trey.

In the third frame all hopes of pulling off the upset were quickly
erased as Tri-Village clamped down on Mississinawa defensively, holding
them to just 6 points.

Matt Werner stepped forward to get the Patriots rolling offensively and
it was his floor game that got it going. It started with an assist over
the top to Barger, then he stole the ball dishing to Pipenger for a
bucket, followed it up with a three-pointer of his own, then stole the
ball for a lay-up and finished the 11 point run with another dish to
Cook for the fielder.

In one minute the Patriots had opened up a 52-31 advantage and the
Blackhawks were never able to recover.

The Patriots placed four players in double figure scoring; Kyle
Pipenger had 21 points while Tyler Cook had 18, Evan Barger 12 and Matt
Werner 10 with 10 assists for a double in support.

The Junior Varsity once again found themselves in a good one with a
strong Mississinawa team and the Patriots had to earn their second
consecutive 20-0 season pulling away late in the game to get the win.

The win marks reserve coach Jeff Judy’s 49th in a row going back to the
2009-2010 season.